Stefan Borson: This is how Arsenal could avoid breaching financial rules
Arsenal could potentially breach Uefa’s financial rules if they don’t cash in on revenue opportunities before the end of this calendar year.
Arsenal posted a club-record revenue in 2023-24 after their turnover improved from £466.7million to £616.6m.
However, Arsenal’s wage bill is the fourth-highest in the Premier League, with their latest published accounts for 2023-24 revealing their wage bill surged from £234.8m in 2022-23 to £327.8m, and that would’ve risen following their spending this year.
It is understood Arsenal are “close” to breaching Uefa’s financial rules after making multiple new signings.
Clubs in European competitions are required to keep spending on player wages and fees to 70 per cent of revenue for this calendar year under the governing body’s regulations.
Arsenal have landed £4m+ windfall
Former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider Arsenal could improve their chances of avoiding a Uefa breach by winning as many games as possible in the league phase of the Champions League.
Mikel Arteta’s side have picked up victories in each of their opening two Champions League games against Athletic Bilbao and Olympiakos.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson said: “They probably will be okay. If they do well in the first pre-31 December Champions League games, and already they started very well, they’ve got two wins. They’re already kind of €5m (£4.3m) ish up for the first half of this year.
“On the worst case, that probably would have factored in maybe. Would they have forecasted in two wins? I don’t know. But the more wins they get in that first period, the safer they’re going to be from squad cost control.
“I don’t think it’s a surprise that they’re close when they did the numbers. There’s not that many things that they can play around with between 30 June and 31 December except for player sales.”
Arsenal have been relatively poor sellers in recent years, with their latest summer sales coming in at less than £10m.
Arsenal chief was concerned about Eberechi Eze signing
It has been revealed Richard Garlick was concerned about the signing of Eberechi Eze in the summer transfer window, with the new CEO warning the £67.5m deal with Crystal Palace could see Arsenal breach Uefa’s rules.
“You can make big profits on player sales in the second part of the window, but they weren’t able to do that, so that will have been disappointing to them,” said Borson.
“That is why when they got to the end of the window and looked at Eze and thought, ‘Well, we’re not going to get the profit from the player sales, so what else is going to come in between now and the end of the season?’. And they would have looked at that and gone, ‘Well, the only real variables are how many home games are we going to have in domestic cups?’.
“Well, almost none. You’re going to have maybe a couple of Carabao Cup games if you’re lucky, and in any event, those are not going to generate any significant revenue. You’re going to have all of the usual things that you factor in, you can estimate those pretty easily at the start of the season.
“They will have known from the games that were in the fixture list. They would have known broadly what they’re going to turn out from a revenue perspective between 30 June and 31 December. But the big variable, almost the only big variable, is going to be how many merit payments are you going to get for Champions League points?
“If you win six games, that’s going to obviously make a big difference to your half-year revenue because you’re generating the best part of €15m (£13m) probably of Champions League prize money, and that probably will get them just over 70 per cent.”
Arsenal’s next Champions League fixture will see them take on Atletico Madrid at the Emirates Stadium on 21 October.
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